Jalsha Movies gets football league for viewers

The movie channel has acquired the rights to air Calcutta Football League and IFA Shield Tournament for seven years.

The channel has bought the rights to telecast live the Calcutta Football League and IFA Shield Tournament. The rights for both CFL and IFA Shield have been bought for seven years.

While Calcutta Football League (CFL) will be aired every day 4 pm onwards, IFA Shield Tournament will go on-air just after CFL gets over. CFL will witness 66 matches and IFA will have 16 matches.

Both sporting events were earlier aired on the regional news channel, Newstime.

Kevin Vaz, business head, English channels, STAR Jalsha and Jalsha Movies, STAR India, says, "The acquisition of broadcast rights of CFL and IFA Shield is a strategic step towards ensuring an even more engaging relationship with our viewers. We have always showcased the best, the biggest blockbuster movies for our fans and now we are all geared to broadcast the other most famous passion of Bengalis - football, live in their own language.

We are excited to partner with IFA in making CFL a bigger extravaganza and we will bring in our expertise from our sports channels to create a state-of-the-art product."

Both events will be promoted heavily on the two Bengali channels of STAR India. They will also be promoted across other media in the coming few days. The first promo of CFL features Baichung Bhutia.

According to the channel, superior production techniques coupled with crystal clear sound will capture the raw emotions on the field. The viewers will listen to contemporary commentary by ex-football players and experts in Bengali with a state-of-the-art presentation comprising detailed graphics.

Utpal Ganguly, honorary secretary, Indian Football Association, says, "We are happy to partner Jalsha Movies for the telecast of CFL and the IFA Shield. The network gives us a great platform to reach out to millions of viewers, which will give football a spectacular boost in this state. I am confident that together we will be able to bring high quality content for our loyal fans every year."

The 10 clubs which are playing super division CFL are Mohunbagan, East Bengal, Mohammedan Sporting, United Sports, Kalighat Milan Sangha, Army Eleven, Peerless Sports Club, Railway Football Club, Aryan Club and George Telegraph Sports Club.